Page 492 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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DR BOURKE: I thank the member for her question and the answer is yes.
MS BRESNAN: A supplementary.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Bresnan has the floor.
MS BRESNAN: Minister, have family members and carers been consulted on the design of this program, in accordance with recommendation 12.10 of the Human Rights Commission’s youth justice system report relating to increased parental involvement in young people’s education?
DR BOURKE: I thank the member for that question. This is a specific question which I will need to take on notice.
Schools—Gonski review
MR DOSZPOT: My question is to the minister for education. Minister, yesterday the commonwealth government released the findings of the Gonski review of funding for schooling. In the review, recommendation 27 states that students with a disability should have an additional entitlement and that entitlement should be fully publicly funded and applied equally to students in all schooling sectors. Minister, do you support this recommendation?
DR BOURKE: I thank the member for his question. The essence of this recommendation, indeed the essence of Gonski, is funding children in need—funding according to needs—which we therefore support.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot, a supplementary question.
MR DOSZPOT: Mr Speaker, I guess my question required a yes or no answer. Can I ask a yes or no supplementary, because he did not answer either way. Minister, if you support this recommendation, which we are dying to know, why do you and the government continue to provide less funding for students with a disability in the non-government sector? If no—so you have time to think about it, minister—why do you and the government believe that students with a disability attending a non-government school should receive less financial support than those in government schools?
DR BOURKE: I thank the member for his question. Within the context of the Gonski review, which included a $4 billion increase in commonwealth funding for education in Australia—
Members interjecting—
DR BOURKE: Within that context, school funding is going to be based on need. It is our position that it is dependent upon those commonwealth initiatives which we are going to negotiate—
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